Following on from placing your litter box in the right place at home, the topic of filling the humble sanctuary with the right substrate is just as important. Cat litter is a necessity in our daily lives and it’s hard to imagine our daily cat caretaking routines without it. Years ago, in 1947, Edward Lowe would pioneer the concept of cat litter in America. It transformed the way owners handled cat care at home and has since been refined into safer, easier to handle and environmentally friendlier products.
Choosing the right cat litter is important for all cat owners, depending on your cats need. Your kitty will adapt to their litter box and substrate but it’s important to consider issues such as young kittens that may nibble on litter and more:
• Sudden change in litter substrate leading to refusal of using the litter box to excrete.
• Dust and odor issues that cause sneezing.
• Poor aggregation leading to excrement being hard to cover, causing anxiety in your cat.
• Relatively poor properties for training kittens to use the litter box and its substrate.
There are a number of cat brands on the market, popular market leading litters will have been tested and reviewed by cat owners all over. You’ll typically find the following types of litter substrate available:
• Clay cat litter
• Pine cat litter
• Tofu cat litter
• Chalk, quarts or crystal cat litter
• Biodegradable plant based cat litter
Functionality in the household is a key part of choosing the right cat litter. The intended use is to fill a litter box or tray and to allow your cat to relieve itself and facilitate the burying of said excrement. Focusing on feces and urine, we can assess litter properties in the following categories:
Water absorption
Water absorption is key function in any cat litter substrate, better absorption properties will retain water within its particles. Quickly taking in urine and preventing your cat from stepping into wet puddles that would inevitably track around the house and cause trouble for both you and your kitty.
Clumping
Poor clumping properties can result in a messy aftermath as scooping your cat’s poop from the tray can spread all over. Excrement is sticking to the bottom of the litter tray often may also be evidence of poor clumping properties.
Deodorizing ability
Anyone who has had the pleasure of taking in the aroma of a freshly laid cat poop will know how powerful this odor can be at home. Picking a substrate that will quickly deodorize the excrement is an important improvement to quality of life.
Dust
Excessive dust can cause allergies in humans and may damage the respiratory system of your cat. Try to choose a cat litter to avoid these issues and to reduce tracking around the house as it’s sure to get on your cats paws and out of the box.
It’s easy to overlook these simple properties when picking a cat litter. Picking the ideal properties for your cat will help to maintain hygiene around the house and make cleaning easier on a daily basis. It’s not all about us as owners either, these properties will significantly raise the quality of your cat’s life as they will need to visit the litter box daily.
Cats that are let out of the house or those that live in the wild will find secluded places to excrete and bury. Cats have their ancestry stemming from cats that lived in the dessert where they would have access to an abundance of softer sands. This would comparatively be easy to dig and bury their waste deep below. Stepping over the buried areas would be a non-issue, a simple and easy process. Litter substrate aims to emulate this experience as close as possible. Substrate texture will also influence the feedback your cat receives as they claw and bury their waste.
We’ve outlined the basis of choosing cat litter today. If you want to know a little more about the various cat litter types and want to make an informed decision, follow @Aipaws. We will be following up with further detail in our upcoming posts around choosing cat litter. Meow! 🐱
Images used in this post are taken from sources that require no attribution
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